-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Gael Monfils saved five match points before beating top seed Roger Federer 7-6 6-7 7-6 to reach the final of the Paris Masters on Saturday .

The home hero will play Robin Soderling for the title after the Swede beat another Frenchman , Michael Llodra , in an earlier pulsating encounter at the Bercy arena .

It was truly the great escape for 12th seed Monfils , who was on the ropes as he served at 5-6 down in the deciding set , having broken back after dropping his service for the first time . The opening two sets were shared on tiebreaks .

16-time grand slam champion Federer proceeded to force a succession of match points , all saved by a mixture of dogged defense by his French opponent or uncustomary errors by the world number two .

The partisan crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when Monfils finally forced the third tiebreak of the match and claimed an early mini-break .

Federer retrieved the loss but uncharacteristic forehand errors saw him fall behind again and when Monfils was presented with his first match point he seized it .

He will now hope to go one better than 2009 when he was beaten in the final by Novak Djokovic .

`` I went to the limits of myself , '' Monfils admitted after his first career victory over Federer .

`` I feel better and better as the tournament goes on . I ran out of juice a little bit at the start of the third set but the fans were there , they pushed me and I kept believing . ''

Earlier , world number five Robin Soderling had to save three match points before ending the fairytale run of Llodra .

He won 6-7 7-5 7-6 to reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final , but came under massive pressure in the 12th game of the third set .

Like Monfils , Soderling staved off defeat to force a deciding tiebreak and secured victory on his second match point after two hours and 49 minutes of gripping action .

`` Today it was a great match . It was n't maybe pretty , but I 'm here as a winner , '' Soderling told the official ATP Tour website .

Llodra , who came back from a break down in the deciding set to set up his victory chances , had defeated defending champion Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko on his way to his first Masters semifinal .

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Gael Monfils to play Robin Soderling in the final of the Paris Masters

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Monfils saves five match points before beating top seed Roger Federer

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Soderling saves three match points to end hopes of Frenchman Michael Llodra